


Never Lose Sight of What is Right Next to You

by musicnote902



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: fanfiction with original character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2018-09-08
Packaged: 2019-07-08 11:38:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15929666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicnote902/pseuds/musicnote902
Summary: A group of juvenile delinquents is sent down to earth nearly 100 years after nuclear war has deemed the planet uninhabitable. Aria and Bellamy have been best friends since childhood, and both manage to get on the ship in an effort to avoid being separated from Bellamy's sister Octavia.





	Never Lose Sight of What is Right Next to You

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfiction post, I have been writing for years but never posted anything so I am a tad nervous. I am a big fan of The 100, so this follows canon fairly closely. Enjoy!

The 100

 

_Year 2149_

            I had never really thought about Earth. I mean, I had wondered idly as a child what a world outside of the Ark could look like, especially after learning in class about the nuclear war that had made Earth uninhabitable. But, as I grew up, I had given up on the fantasies after my heart made peace with the constant reminders that I would never see the ground.

            And yet, miraculously, here I was.

            The minute the drop ship doors opened, we saw sunlight and trees, things we had only ever imagined. Every one of us stood frozen to the spot as we waited for the air to kill us, and when it didn’t, we started taking it all in. Or at least, I did. I felt like I was in sensory overload as I looked through the open door, sighing as a breeze drifted into the ship. It smelled like nothing I had ever smelled before, it was fresh and clean, nothing like the smells of machinery that we were all used to.

            I pushed my way closer to the front of the ship and heard Bellamy’s deep voice up ahead. He was speaking to someone, a girl with long brown hair, and it took me a moment to realize it was Octavia. We all watched in silence as she walked down the ramp and became the first member of the Ark to touch the ground in ninety-seven years.

            “We’re back, bitches!”

            All around me, everyone erupted in cheers as they started to run out of the drop ship to join her.

            I looked ahead of me and saw Bellamy still standing at the entrance of the drop ship. I walked over and put my hand on his shoulder, saying nothing as I felt the warmth of the sun’s rays on my face for the first time.

            “I never thought, in a million years, that I would step foot on Earth,” I whispered to him as I looked around.

            “Me neither,” he replied as he looked out at Octavia. Bellamy glanced down at me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “I’m glad you made it. I was scared you wouldn’t get there in time.”

            He was right. It had been too close a call. “Well, what are we waiting for? Everybody else is enjoying it, why don’t we?” I yanked his hand as I dragged him off the ship as I shook off my amazement, grinning and laughing as we ran toward Octavia first, then the forest.

 

 

 

            Later that afternoon, fires had been lit, a handful of tents had been pitched, and Wells Jaha was asking for volunteers to find water for the group. I politely declined as I started to keep a watchful eye on Bellamy, who was acting strange every time he caught a glimpse of a wristband, something that neither of us had.

            We had all been in Earth survival courses on the Ark, but that was nothing compared to this. According to a girl named Clarke Griffin, whose mother was the head doctor on the Ark, we should have landed near a bunker on a mountain called Mount Weather. However, after consulting a map, she had found out that we were a good twenty miles away from it. After arguing with Bellamy about the mountain, she made a new plan. So, earlier that day, she and a few others had left in search of a possible route to the mountain.

            Bellamy had taken it upon himself to become the de-facto leader. His motto “whatever the hell we want,” was ringing in my ears, and it made me uneasy.

            I was walking over to Bellamy’s tent, impressed that he already had some shelter up despite the rise he was getting out of some the delinquents, though I had a feeling he was behind the growing chaos. I pulled back the entrance of his tent and walked in. He gave me a smile when he turned to see me standing there.

            “Hey, what’s up?” He casually asked as I entered.

            “Nothing, really,” I said.

            I looked around the tent, picking up his guardsman jacket from the floor. “I have a theory, Bell,” I said slowly, folding the jacket neatly and placing it gently on the cot. Bellamy raised an eyebrow at me, silently asking me to continue. “I think we were sent down here to see if the Earth was habitable for the rest of the Ark to come down. Maybe there’s something wrong with the space station. They wouldn’t send people to Earth a hundred and fifty years ahead of schedule if there wasn’t a threat.” I was rambling, but like always, Bellamy waited for me to finish before speaking.

            His features darkened for a moment. “If I had it my way, A, they wouldn’t come down at all. They can go float themselves.”

            I narrowed my eyes at him, seeing him pause and look away. He turned back to me, and I knew the look on his face. Bellamy was usually very good at hiding secrets from others, but not from me.

            I crossed my arms and looked him square in the eyes. I hadn’t confronted Bellamy about why he told me to sneak onto the drop ship, and it seemed now was the time to find out.

            “Bellamy, what aren’t you telling me?”

            He looked at me with pleading eyes. “Aria, I had to get on that ship,” Bellamy grabbed my arms in a firm, but gentle grasp. “…for Octavia.”

            “How?” I asked quietly.

            “Shumway, the officer? He told me that a ship with the prisoners, including Octavia, was being sent to Earth. He wanted me to do something for him, and he’d ensure me a way on.” I could see pain in his eyes.

            “Why would he do that? He was the one who arrested Octavia,” I asked suspiciously, shaking my head in disbelief.

            “He wanted me to kill Chancellor Jaha,” Bellamy said quietly.

            I backed away from him, still shaking my head. “Bellamy- “

            Bellamy grabbed my hand and led me to the cot on one side of the tent. “My sister, my responsibility,” he said softly.

            There it was again, I’d heard that mantra many times throughout the years. When Octavia had gotten arrested at that dance, he had felt so guilty, scared that he would never see, talk to, or hug his sister ever again. I remembered his pain as his mother was floated, believing he was alone, then forced to take a job as a janitor when he was stripped of his cadet status. He had retreated into himself, painfully nestled into a dark web of guilt and anguish, and it had broken my heart to see him that way.

            “So…Jaha is dead?” I asked slowly as I snapped out of the past.

            “Yes.”

            “And the Ark knows that you’re down here? That I’m down here?”

            “I’m sure they’ve figured it out by now,” Bellamy shrugged.

            I looked at the chain around his neck, and the pain that we’d been through together washed over me.

            “Hey,” I whispered to him, laying my hand on his heart. “Do you remember what you said to me when I asked you to hold on to that for me?” I gestured at the necklace as I asked the question.

            He was silent for a moment, then gave me a small smile and said, “Of course. I’ll keep it here always, close to my heart, just like you.”

            I nodded, chuckling as I remembered how cheesy that sounded out loud. But that day, it was the most perfect thing he could have said to such a strange request.

            “Close to my heart, just like you,” I repeated, grasping the matching chain around my neck.

           

 

 

           

            Within the next few days, there was a whirlwind of chaos going on around us. In Clarke’s absence that first night on the ground, Bellamy had managed to convince a portion of the hundred to take off their wristbands. We knew that the wristbands transmitted vital signs of the teens to the Ark to monitor us, but neither Bellamy or I had one. In his fear of getting caught for shooting the Chancellor, he convinced the teens that if the citizens of the Ark joined us on the ground, their crimes would not be forgiven, and that the Ark won’t follow if they believed life on Earth was unsustainable.

            Clarke, Monty, Finn, Octavia, and Jasper had headed out into the woods in search of a possible route to Mount Weather a few days before, when Jasper had been struck with a spear after crossing a river. They hadn’t been able to get to him before he disappeared and ended up going back to camp without him. They made the decision to head back out the next morning to find him, despite Bellamy’s insistence that Jasper was dead.

            We had found Jasper the next morning, tied into the branches of a tree surrounded by traps, one of which Clarke would have been speared in, if not for Bellamy’s reflexes in catching her. On top of that, we were almost attacked by a jaguar, and it became our first hunting prize when Wells shot it with a gun that he had apparently stolen from Bellamy.  We managed to get Jasper back to camp, and with the only medical knowledge of the entire group, Clarke had been tending to him ever since.

            Imagine how frustrated I was when I learned that once the jaguar was cooked, Bellamy and John were making the delinquents trade their wristbands for food.

            The next day, we find out about the acid fog. I had stayed in camp to help keep an eye on everyone while Bellamy was out hunting and Clarke was looking for seaweed that would help Jasper. When they’d gotten back, they had carried in the body of Atom, who had fallen in the forest when the acid fog started and wasn’t able to find shelter. By my count, we were now down five people in less than three days.

            Clarke, with the help of Octavia and I, had managed to keep Jasper alive while battling the complaints of his crying and moaning that had been keeping many people awake. Bellamy and John believed that he was a lost cause, but Clarke wouldn’t give up on him. Thank god she didn’t, because he finally woke up and was soon sitting up and joking with Monty like nothing happened.

            Then, we found out that Wells, the son of Chancellor Jaha, was killed by a stab wound to the carotid artery. A knife was found not long after, made from materials out of the drop ship.

            Clarke and Bellamy differed on how this should be handled. Some, including me, believed that grounders had killed Wells. Clarke was already blaming John, not hesitating to point out the altercation between him and Wells. I didn’t have anything against John, in fact he was a friend of mine, but there was no reasoning with Clarke, and that’s why at this moment I was in Bellamy’s tent, trying to figure out a course of action.

            “Bell, we can’t just go hunting down our own people. I’m sure we will figure out who is behind this, but we can’t let Clarke just walk up and point a finger at John. The members of this camp are just kids, and whether they realize it or not, they are counting on both of you to lead them.” I was standing in front of Bellamy with my arms crossed in the middle of his tent as he paced.

            “They may be kids, A, but they’re also criminals,” he said absentmindedly. He seemed to be conveniently forgetting that he was also a criminal. I rolled my eyes. Bellamy looked at me for a moment before he continued to pace.

            Being in a camp surrounded by teenagers was not all fun and games, in fact it was downright frustrating. Bellamy and I were both twenty-three years old, and we were starting to get sick of the teenagers and their attitudes. We needed this handled with some semblance of discretion, something that was becoming increasingly scarce.

            “Clarke isn’t going to let go of this until she finds out who did it, and right now she’s got John in her sights,” I sat down on the cot. Clarke and Bellamy constantly butted heads, but Wells was her best friend, and she was inconsolable. That meant Bellamy needed to step up, but we couldn’t quite figure out how.

            “I’m aware,” he responded, “but she doesn’t have any proof besides the knife we found. It could have been anybody’s.  As long as they think the grounders killed Wells, they will continue to build that wall around camp in an effort to keep everyone safe.” Despite his somewhat harsh front the last few days, he was working hard to motivate people, even if his methods weren’t exactly ethical.

            “I guess, but I mean, I don’t think he did it,” I stated, staring up at the ceiling in frustration; Bellamy’s pacing was driving me nuts.

            I had known John, a long time ago it seemed. But things changed, and we had grown apart, especially with our age gap. But I never thought he would murder someone, even if it was the son of the man who imprisoned him.

            “Honestly, I don’t know what to think, A,” Bellamy replied, shaking his head.

            “Well, has anyone been acting strangely? Like out of the ordinary?” I knew it was a loaded question, a hundred teens in the woods, out of their element, of course they’re going to act differently than they would have on the Ark.

            “Are you serious? Did you not just hear that Monty made his first batch of moonshine this afternoon? Kids have been hammered since noon,” he scoffed, rolling his eyes at me.

            I stood up and got in his way. “Quit the pacing Bell, you’re driving me insane. I meant has anyone acted suspicious? Besides John, of course.” John was on a power trip, just because he was one of the first to go along with Bellamy’s “no rules” politics.

            Bellamy stood there, with his hands on his hips, trying to find an answer to my question, then shrugged and shook his head.

            “Maybe I should go check on Clarke, and see if she’s got any ideas,” I said after a few minutes. He just glared at me.

            “Bellamy, don’t. She just doesn’t want to lose anyone else, she had only just found out the truth about her mom from Wells the night he died,” I told him quietly.

            I saw the muscles tick in his jaw, but after a few more moments of silence, his features softened. “I don’t want you or Octavia going anywhere outside of camp by yourselves. You’re right, we can’t lose any more people, and if I let anything happen to either of you, I’d never forgive myself. You’re down here because of me.”

            We were interrupted by noise outside, and we glanced to each other before running out of the tent. What looked like the whole camp was gathered in one spot.

            Clarke had confronted John about the knife, which I was just learning had his initials on the inside. Bellamy and I pushed our way through the crowd to get to the middle, and we were soon joined by Octavia and Jasper.

            Everybody knew that John had threatened Wells that first day on the ground, but I seemed to be the only person who didn’t believe that he had killed him. With the knife in Clarke’s hand, it was all the proof they needed.

            John looked to Bellamy for support, but he didn’t really have anything to say.

            “I don’t have to answer to any of you!” John yelled as he tried to walk away.

            Bellamy folded his arms. “Come again?” He had that _don’t mess with me right now_ look on his face. John froze in his steps at Bellamy’s gaze.

            “He tried to kill Jasper, too,” Octavia chimed in. Jasper looked terrified from where he was standing next to her.

            I watched in horror as people ganged up on John, kicking and beating him while tying his hands together.

            I couldn’t watch it any longer and looked at Bellamy. “You’re going to let them do this to him?”

            He glanced at me for a second, the tick working in his jaw again, before beginning to follow the throng of people as they moved to the woods.

 

 

 

            I watched as a rope was thrown around a high tree branch, then slipped around John’s neck.

            I was standing next to Clarke, who was trying anything to get the madness to stop. My mind was racing, I didn’t know what to do, or how to help.

            “Bellamy! You can’t let them do this! They’ll listen to you! Tell them to stop!” Clarke begged as she grabbed his arm.

            “You brought this on yourself, princess!” Bellamy said roughly as he ripped his arm from her grasp.

            John was begging for his help, and just as I reached out to grab Bellamy’s arm, he got out of my reach and kicked the box out from underneath John.

            I was so shocked, I couldn’t move. That is, until I heard a voice yell from nearby.

            “I did it! Murphy didn’t kill Wells, I did!”

            I turned to see where the revelation came from, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was Charlotte, the youngest of the hundred. I looked to Bellamy, who was frozen where he stood, and in that split second, I saw the reality flash on his face too.

            Clarke grabbed the axe from Bellamy’s waist and cut the rope holding John in the air. The second he was on the floor, I was at his side.

            “John are you okay?” I got the belt off his neck and freed his hands. He was still gasping for breath.

            I looked toward Bellamy, and I recognized the look on his face. It was the same look he’d had when Octavia had been found out by the guard at the dance.

            He glanced to me for a second, before grabbing Charlotte’s hand and running the opposite direction.

            “I’m gonna find that little bitch and kill her,” John croaked from my side.

 

 

 

 

            Knowing that John was going to try and find Charlotte, I got up and started running. Once I found the tent, I saw Bellamy, Finn, and Clarke inside with Charlotte.

            “Guys,” I panted, “John will be on a manhunt for her, what the hell is going on?”

            “Yeah, I’d like to know myself,” Clarke replied, glaring at Bellamy.

            Charlotte looked fearfully to Bellamy. “I had to slay my demons, like you told me to.”

            I was confused and exchanged a glance with Clarke. “Bell? What is she talking about?”

            Bellamy looked at Charlotte, then desperately to me and Clarke. “She misunderstood me. You misunderstood me,” he said quickly, kneeling next to Charlotte.

            “Bellamy!” We all glanced nervously at the entrance of the tent.

            I recognized the voice as John yelling from outside.

            “Just give me the girl and this all ends now!” He yelled again.

            Charlotte looked frantically to Bellamy. “Please, don’t let them kill me.”

            I looked at Bellamy. “Clarke, Finn, take Charlotte and get outta here.” They nodded and waited until Bellamy and I walked out of the tent before quietly slipping out the back into the forest.

            “John- “ I started cautiously, noticing that people had milled around us once again.

            “Aria, you can’t seriously protect her? I was blamed for what that little bitch did!” John stared at me.

            Not knowing that John wouldn’t ever try to hurt me, Bellamy put his arm up in front of me. “Don’t take it out on Aria.”

            John laughed. “I don’t answer to you anymore Bellamy. I want justice for this.”

            “Killing a little girl is not justice, Murphy,” Bellamy said roughly.

            After more arguing, I was still trying to diffuse the situation with Bellamy standing protectively in front of me. John took a swing at him, knocking him to the ground. Bellamy got right back up, and returned the favor, then grabbed my hand, pulling me into the dark forest.

            I found the small bunker that Finn and I had stumbled across a few days ago, then opened the hatch, telling Bellamy to get in.

            Clarke, Finn, and Charlotte were already there. After making sure they’d be fine, we left the same way we came in and tried to find out where John and his cronies were.

            Not long after, Bellamy saw Charlotte running through the forest, having apparently gotten the best of Clarke and Finn. She wanted to end this, and was looking for John, but Bellamy refused. I tried to talk to her, but she wouldn’t listen to sense. When Bellamy picked her up, she started screaming John’s name so that he’d find her as we ran through the woods.

            We stopped in our tracks when we realized we were at a dead end, on the side of a cliff, no less.

            “Bell?” I looked to him desperately with an arm wrapped around Charlotte, and suddenly we were surrounded by John and his group. They were closely followed by Clarke and Finn, with Clarke immediately joining us on the edge of the cliff.

            “John, please, she’s just a kid,” I pleaded, stepping toward him.

            “Aria, if she hadn’t come forward, I would’ve died for something I didn’t do!” John barked at me.

            We refused to hand Charlotte over to John, and the poor girl was so distraught by what she caused that she backed herself off the cliff.

            I ran to the cliff’s edge, watching as Bellamy and Clarke stared into the darkness. Bellamy snapped and ran to John, knocking him to the ground and attempting to smash his face in.

            I scrambled to Bellamy, trying to pull him off, but he wouldn’t let up, until Clarke joined me.

            “We should banish him,” Clarke finally told Bellamy after arguing over what to do about John. “We don’t choose who lives and dies! Not down here!”

            “I agree,” I said quietly, trying not to look at John. I hadn’t wanted this for him, but now it was hard to argue.

            And that’s exactly what we did. It was now that Bellamy was realizing that there had to be at least a few rules, to keep anything like this from happening again.

           

 

 

            I woke up in a cold sweat. The night was warm, but it didn’t help the recurring nightmares. It seemed that the longer we were on the ground the more frequent my bad dreams. I sighed and sat up in bed, rubbing my face with my hands. I got up and laced up my shoes and grabbed my jacket, heading out of the tent.

            After walking around for a while to calm down, the cool air feeling refreshing on my face, I soon found myself in front of Bellamy’s tent. I lifted the flap and walked inside.

            “Bellamy…are you awake?” I whispered in the dark. There was no answer, but I could just make out his silhouette, sleeping on his stomach with one arm dangling off the edge of the cot.

            I slipped off my shoes and jacket, gently moved his arm and quietly laid down next to him, pulling the blanket over, making sure to cover both of us.

            “A? Is something wrong?” Bellamy mumbled in a voice filled with sleep.

            I sighed as I turned toward him, closing my eyes as I felt his warmth radiating around me, “I couldn’t sleep, Bell, the nightmares are back.” I felt like a child, telling their parents that they’d had a bad dream.

            He turned towards me and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer to his chest.

            “How long ago did they start?” Bellamy asked gently.

            “A couple days after we landed. They weren’t so bad at first, but now it seems every time I close my eyes I see my parents being floated, over and over again,” I shuddered, burrowing my face in his chest.

            Bellamy sighed and rubbed my back reassuringly. “There was nothing you could have done, Aria, they broke the law, they would’ve gotten floated at some point. It’s not like you were the one that turned them in.”

            Bellamy had said this to me so many times over the years. It wasn’t so much that I felt sad, as the fact that I was still upset that they would jeopardize their own lives by hacking into the Ark mainframe, that they didn’t think of the consequences, and ultimately, that they never thought it could end with me becoming an orphan, and that’s exactly what happened. I was a few months shy of eighteen at the time they were floated, and to this day, I still don’t know what they expected to find. Councilor Marcus Kane was a childhood friend of my father’s, so he argued to let me stay in the housing that my family was assigned to. That was when the nightmares started, after spending just a few nights alone in my cabin for the first time.

            Bellamy and I had met when we were about six years old. We had always lived across the hall from each other, had always been best friends. When the nightmares first started, he would stay with me in my cabin in the afternoons while I caught up on sleep. So long as he was there, watching over me, I never had bad dreams.

            They stopped briefly after about a year, but Bellamy was always there. He had his own problems in his life, though he always made time for me. Always making sure that I was alright, checking up on me, always by my side. He was my truest and only friend, and I trusted him with my life.

            We trusted each other more than anyone else, because for so long, it had only been the two of us. Or so it had seemed to me. Then, Bellamy told me his secret, that he had a sister, and I began to see life on the Ark a little differently. It didn’t take me long to realize that the Blake’s were the only family I needed from that point on.

For the two of us, there were no boundaries, every touch and graze was comfortable because we had each lived through our own pain and come out on the other side through the comfort of the other’s arms. Every nightmare, every tear, every instance of misplaced aggression because of things we’d lost, they had changed our friendship into something…unbreakable.  

            After settling in bed with Bellamy, it was only a matter of time before I drifted off into the best sleep I’d had in days.

            I woke up the next morning to rustling in the tent. I rolled over, opening my eyes only the slightest bit to see what was going on.

            “Hey,” Bellamy grinned at me. It seemed he had just woken up and was going to check on the guard post, if his bedhead was any indication.

            I yawned and stretched, then swung my legs off the bed to sit up. “Thanks for letting me stay here last night,” I said groggily.

            “No problem, I’m glad you were able to get some sleep,” he sat next to me on the bed, shirtless as he bent to tie his boots. “You know, if the nightmares keep coming back, you could just stay in my tent,” he said casually.

            I contemplated it, knowing that Bellamy’s company was the only reason I could get a good night’s sleep when the nightmares came. I didn’t need the entire camp to think something was going on with us when it really wasn’t, I mean I wasn’t sleeping with him after all, but no teenager would take that at face value. I knew how the kids liked to gossip, the biggest piece of gossip around camp being Bellamy and his recent, well, sleepovers, for lack of a better word. It was kind of funny to me, because when we were kids, I’d gossip to Bellamy all the time, and he barely tolerated it then, let alone now.

            I laid my head on his shoulder and sighed. “I know, I wish they would just go away, you have enough to worry about without me showing up at your tent in the middle of the night,” I mumbled into Bellamy’s shoulder.

            There was a part of me that didn’t want the nightmares to stop, because it gave me a reason to be around Bellamy more often. Since we landed on the ground, I wasn’t around him like I would have been on the Ark, opting to stay in camp to oversee the others while he was away. I was constantly on edge when he didn’t come back when he said he would, especially now that we knew we weren’t alone on the ground like we had originally thought.

            I looked at his necklace, at my ring. I picked it up off his chest and examined it. It was just as perfect as the day he’d hung it around his neck. “Do you want me to stay here at night?” Bellamy put his fingers under my chin, lifting my head to look at my face.

            “Yes, and don’t worry too much. We will get through this, all of this,” he said, touching his forehead to mine. He stood up and shrugged on his shirt and jacket, walking out of the tent in search of breakfast.

 

 

 

 

            I watched warily as Bellamy ordered some of the delinquents to take the grounder to the drop ship, while he carried an injured Finn through the gate.  

            I caught sight of Octavia and hooked an arm through hers when I noticed her limping, simultaneously asking what was going on and where she’d been.

            She told me how she’d managed to knock herself out in the forest running from grounders and had woken up in a cave, injured and alone. Sitting down outside of the dropship, she showed me the scar on her leg while she told of the grounder that had found her in the forest, carried her to safety while other grounders attacked our people, and had cauterized her wound, all without saying a word. The same grounder was unconscious and now being carried through the dropship door.

            I glanced up to the dropship, where people were beginning to mill, and I ran over. I managed to get inside just as Bellamy saw me, informing me that a storm was coming. As if the increased windspeed and darker skies were no indication.

            “Bellamy, why did you bring him here?” I whispered as I grabbed his arm, ignoring his announcement about the weather.

            “He had Octavia,” Bellamy grunted. “And, he stabbed Finn.”

            “And did you even stop to think what you were going to do once you got him here?” I glared at him while crossing my arms.

            His eyes darted to the hatch above our heads but didn’t answer as the tick worked in his jaw. I watched as he turned away from me without a word and climbed the ladder, sighing and rubbing my face as Bellamy disappeared from view.

            Within the next few minutes Clarke, Octavia, and Raven were surrounding Finn, trying to figure out what to do. Raven was practically panicking, something I had never seen her do before, and Clarke told her we needed to reach the Ark if we wanted to save Finn. I grabbed Raven’s hand, gently turning her toward me.

            “Come on, I heard you managed to find some supplies for a radio, let’s get it up and running,” I told her calmly as I led her to where Monty was working on the wristbands the day before. I glanced over my shoulder at Clarke, who mouthed _thank you_ as I steered Raven away.

            After many failed attempts, even I was about to scream in frustration when Raven finally got through to the Ark. Once Clarke was patched through to her mom, I glanced at the hatch in the ceiling. I gave Raven a pat on the shoulder as I got up, hesitating as I heard the storm growing outside, but started climbing the ladder anyway. I pounded on the door, climbing through when Miller opened the hatch.

            “Aria, you shouldn’t be here,” Bellamy said with a tired look.

            I shook my head as I looked to the grounder strung up in front of me. “I’m not going anywhere, Bellamy,” I said firmly, keeping eye contact.

            Octavia appeared by my side, and I rubbed my face exhaustedly as the siblings begin arguing. I hung in the back, pacing as I listened to them. I understand that Bellamy wanted information from the grounder, but he protected Octavia from the other grounders that didn’t hesitate to kill members of Bellamy’s search party.

            “I don’t even think he speaks English, he won’t understand you,” Octavia snarled, glaring at Bellamy after he tells her again to leave.

            “Oh, I think he will,” Bellamy replied menacingly.

            I looked up at Bellamy from across the room, he was clearly frustrated with his baby sister. I was still worried about Finn downstairs, but with Abby’s help, I trusted he was in good hands with Clarke. Bellamy was the one I needed to keep an eye on right now.

            After Octavia left, Bellamy’s eyes met mine once again, and I didn’t move an inch when he opened his mouth to tell me again to leave.

            “You can’t boss me around the way you think you can, because I’m not afraid of you one bit, Bellamy. I can be stubborn too, wonder who I learned that from?” I said passively as I stuck my hands in my back pockets.

            Bellamy glared at me from under his mop of curly hair. I shrugged and sat in one of the seats next to Miller, making myself comfortable. The changes in Bellamy were getting more drastic by the day. That gentle man that calmed my fears by night, he was allowing his overprotective nature to show through in shows of force rather than leadership, and nothing I said to him would sway his decisions.

            Everyone was silent while Bellamy paced. The wheels turned in my head as he grabbed a seat belt, wrapping it around his hand with the metal clasp dangling near his knees.

            “Bellamy- “ I started.

            “If you don’t want to see this, you’re free to leave,” Bellamy growled to me over his shoulder.

            Still refusing to leave, I sighed and leaned forward with my arms on my thighs, sadly taking in the sight about to unfold in front of me.

 

 

 

            Octavia waved me forward into the darkness, and I followed quietly as she entered what I now realized was the opening to a cave. I grabbed her arm, trusting that she knew where she was going, and soon I could see the flickers of light against the cave walls. A shadow appeared from the darkness across from us, and I stood still for a moment before Octavia guided me further into the expanse of the cave.

            “Octavia,” he said gently, but cautiously, as he stepped into the light.

            “Lincoln, it’s okay, this is Aria,” Octavia gestured to me as she walked toward him with a smile.

            “She was there, as your brother tortured me,” he said quietly, glance between the two of us.

            “If I could, I would have stopped him,” I bit out. “I’m sorry for what he did to you, I will never defend him for his actions that day, but he’s my best friend. O and Bellamy are my only family, which unfortunately causes him to be extremely overprotective of us both.”

            “Then why are you here? Did he send you?” Lincoln asked suspiciously.

            “Lincoln, I brought her here, I trust her,” Octavia assured him. “I told her you were teaching me to fight, and she wanted to ask you to teach her, too. Bellamy has no idea we’re here. No one does.”

            “I knew that Octavia was going to free you the day everyone got high off those nuts, and I didn’t do anything to stop her. You protected her from the others that killed our friends, and for that alone, I trust you. Maybe you have no reason right now to trust me, but I can show you that you can. Please, teach me to fight. We may be able to defend ourselves with guns for now, but one of these days, sooner or later, those bullets will run out and we will be screwed,” I argued.

            “Well, at least you think ahead, unlike your friend. Yes, I can teach you to fight, but no one is to know. Just as you may be risking the wrath of your people if they find out, I am risking the wrath of mine for helping you.” Lincoln was now standing right in front of me, and I confidently nodded as he handed me a sword.

           

           

           

 

            I watched as Octavia and two guys brought John Murphy inside the walls and took him to the dropship, then followed them in.

            “O, what happened?” I asked as I dropped down next to John. I looked at the wounds on his face and hands, trying my best to gauge how deep they were.

            “Someone tripped a wire outside the wall, some of the guys thought it was grounders, but instead we found him,” she glanced around the dropship. The two guys, I think their names were Derek and Connor, had already walked out of the dropship. I picked up one of John’s hands to inspect it.

            “Lincoln left me his sign,” Octavia said quietly. I glanced up at her, knowing that he had been leaving her a single, beautiful white flower as a sign that he needed to talk to her or warn her. I nodded, wondering what Lincoln would have to say this time.

            “I’ll take care of John, you don’t need to stay, O.” I glanced back at John, who finally lifted his head for me to check out his face better. Not only was he beat up, but he looked pale, as if he were sick.

            She lingered for a moment, as if she were worried about leaving me here with him, not realizing that the two of us had once been friends. I glanced to her with a small nod, waiting as she put a comforting hand on my shoulder before she turned and walked out.

            “Can you tell me what they did to you John?” I asked gently, laying a hand on his face.

            As I looked at him, his eyes softened and he shook his head. I was sure he was still mad at me for siding with Clarke and Bellamy about his banishment, but he was allowing me to try and take care of him. That was a start, at least.

            I sighed and grabbed a blanket for him. “Get some rest, I need to help keep a lookout with the others, I’ll be back to check up on you in a bit, okay?”

            As I got up off the floor and turned around, I heard voices from outside the dropship. Bellamy walked in, surrounded by a group of the teenagers, including Clarke and Finn.

            “A, get away from Murphy,” Bellamy growled. I hesitated, but slowly retreated to his side. Bellamy never took his eyes off John. “Everybody out except Derek and Connor. What are you doing here, Murphy? We banished you.”

            “I was running from the grounders,” John croaked.

            I looked pleadingly at Bellamy, “Bell, he’s badly hurt.”

            “Doesn’t matter, he knew what would happen if he came back,” Bellamy growled again as he shot a glance to me.

            Clarke stepped forward to take a closer look at John. “Bellamy…his fingernails are torn off. They tortured him.”

            Bellamy adjusted his stance with his rifle. “What did you tell the grounders, Murphy?”

            The look on John’s face hardened once again as he hesitated. “Everything,” he said simply, and my heart dropped to the floor.

            I glanced nervously at Bellamy, then Clarke spoke up, and they began to argue over whether John should stay until he got better. I didn’t want to listen to them arguing, so I quietly turned and walked out of the dropship.

            I made my way over to Bellamy’s tent, where I had been staying the last few nights. The nightmares were keeping me awake again, and, like always, Bellamy was my safe haven from the storm.

            I wanted to help John, I really did, but I knew that Bellamy wouldn’t stand for me to be anywhere near him, which put me in a tough spot between my two friends.  I paced in the tent, just as Bellamy himself had done time and time again.

            I was worrying about John and didn’t know how much time had passed when Bellamy found me in his tent. He looked worried.

            “Bellamy, what’s the matter?” I froze in my steps. He stepped up and took my face in his hands, inspecting it before breathing a sigh of relief.

            “Bellamy?”

            “The guys who brought in Murphy, Derek and Connor? They’re sick, and so is Clarke. They’re bleeding from their nose and eyes and coughing up blood. How do you feel?” he was going into his overprotective mode, rambling and searching for any sign of distress.

            “Bell, I feel fine, okay? But if I feel anything at all, you will be the first to know,” I assured him.

            He took a deep breath. “Clarke wants everyone who had contact with Murphy in the dropship. A quarantine.” Looking in his eyes, I could see the fear.

            “Okay, well, to be on the safe side, you should stay here, I’ll walk myself over there,” I told him as I grabbed my jacket.

            “Octavia is there, too,” he said quietly. “She’s not showing symptoms yet, either.”

            I nodded and headed to the drop ship, and it was then that I felt it. I touched my face, under my nose, and pulled my fingers back to see blood. I was frozen to the spot before I yelled Bellamy’s name.

            He came running, and his eyes widened as he saw my face, the dread sinking in. he ripped a strip off the bottom of his shirt and put it over his face as we ran toward the dropship.

            “Clarke?” Bellamy yelled. I saw Clarke head towards us and saw her face. She had blood streaks under her eyes, and she was already looking ragged.

            “Oh, no, not you too?” She breathed. She gave me a quick once over, then looked at Bellamy. “Get out of here, before you get it as well.”

            I stopped him before he left, glancing at the chain hung around his neck, “If anything happens to me-“

            “Nothing’s going to happen, you’ll be fine,” Bellamy whispered back stubbornly. He had known what I was going to tell him. When I had given him the necklace years ago, I had told him that if anything happened to me, I wanted him to keep it. Back then, it seemed a silly thing, not unlike a pinky promise, but here on the ground, it took on a whole new meaning.

            Bellamy nodded at Clarke, then looked at me, his face torn between fear and worry. He shook his head as he left the dropship.

            “Aria?” I turned and saw Octavia, no outward physical signs of duress on her part.

            I looked at her for a second, and it was then that I realized how scared I was. She ran to envelop me in a hug.

            “O, what’s happening to us?” I whispered into her shoulder.

            She pulled away. “I’m going to find Lincoln now, he may know what this is and how to fight it. It came from Murphy, from the grounders that tortured him.”

            “Hurry, O,” I pleaded. I trusted Lincoln just as much as she did. I had been out with her a few times to see him. He was teaching us to fight and speak the grounder language.

            “I’ll be back soon, promise,” Octavia whispered, and snuck out of the dropship.

            Clarke gave me a spot to sleep after checking me out. I didn’t have any other symptoms as of yet, but I was starting to feel groggy when I was wide awake earlier.

            “Aria,” I heard a course voice saying my name. I turned, and it was John, sitting up in a corner.

            I carefully got up because now there was an intense pounding in my head, and walked over to him, sliding down to the ground, resting my head on the wall behind me.

            “I never wanted that banishment for you, John,” I told him quietly.

            He scoffed at me. “Could’ve fooled me. You sure listen to Bellamy like one hell of a lapdog, you say you didn’t want it, yet you sided with them,” he retorted, referring to how I had recoiled to Bellamy’s side earlier.

            I sighed. “He’s my best friend, he’s only trying to protect me, not to mention everyone else. But he’s changed since we got on the ground. So have you, for that matter, the way you acted caused Bellamy to see you as a threat to the others, and with everything we are dealing with since we got here, we can’t afford to take risks. Especially within our own ranks,” I muttered as I closed my eyes.

            “Aria, I understand that he’s just trying to survive down here, but it doesn’t change the fact that they…” John sighed, “Bellamy tried to hang me for something I didn’t do. If Charlotte hadn’t fessed up…” He sounded as though he was trying not to sound angry, but I knew him better than that, and he knew that. If he were speaking to anyone else, he would probably be yelling.

            “I know, and if it makes you feel any better, I told him I didn’t think you did it. You may have hated Wells, but I didn’t think you killed him.”

            “Oddly enough, that doesn’t make me feel better, actually,” he muttered. “Thanks for not treating me like dirt, by the way,” John said quietly after a few moments of silence.

            I turned to look at him. I tried to remember the old days, on the Ark, when we first met. I used to tutor some of the kids in my spare time, and he was one of them. John was still a bit of an ass back then, and I would often forget that he was six years younger than me, but we would always have fun together. I didn’t hear from him much after his mom’s drinking got out of control, and the next thing I knew, he was in the skybox.

            It was hard to see the John I used to know. But he was right, we did what we had to do to survive down here.

            I had moved my blanket closer to John, and I was half asleep when I was jolted awake by the sound of coughing. John put his hand on my shoulder, and pushed me gently back down to the floor, urging me to try and get some sleep. After all the chaos on the ground, and the Ark for that matter, John was not as horrible a person people seemed to think he was, at least in my eyes.

            Before I could close my eyes, something else happened. I bolted upright to see where the noise was coming from, and across the room, a kid was in the middle of a seizure. Clarke was next to him, trying to help, but before she could do anything, he just slumped over and was motionless.

            I looked at John, very aware of the knot forming in my gut.

            “That’s the second one so far. Derek died the same way earlier, before you got here,” he said gruffly, without lifting his eyes from the floor. I felt my heart start to race, fear surging through me.

            “The best thing for you, or any of us right now is rest, try not to think about it,” John assured me quietly. I rolled my eyes at him. It was strange to hear him say something like that, he tended to be very pessimistic.

            “Yeah, I’ll do that,” I said sarcastically, lying back down so that I faced John instead of the activity on the other side of the ship.

            I heard him chuckle quietly before I drifted to sleep.

            When I woke up, thankfully not because of a nightmare, it was to the sound of John and Finn talking. I opened my eyes and sat up slowly to see what was going on.

            More kids were sick now, and apparently Clarke had collapsed. I heard John say he was feeling better and Clarke should take his spot, before offering to help take care of the others.

            Before I could react, I felt something in the back of my throat, and in seconds blood was spilling out of my mouth.

            I was still sputtering when I heard Octavia’s voice next to me.

            “Aria!” I sat up and drank the water offered to me. I looked up to see Octavia’s brilliant green eyes. So many thoughts were running through my head.

            “O, I’m scared, I’m so scared right now,” I told her quietly.

            “Hey, you’re strong, you’ll be okay,” Octavia held my hand, reassuring me.

            “Is Bellamy okay? He hasn’t gotten it, right?” I inquired weakly.

            “Yeah, he’s fine. I talked to Lincoln. He said the sickness is used to thin the battlefield. He said it passes quickly, I told Lincoln you were sick, he said if you made it through the night, and you have, that you’ll be fine,” she said as she pulled my blanket up higher.

            I was relieved that Bellamy hadn’t gotten sick, we needed him. I needed him. In that moment, I wished that both the Blakes were there to assure me, just as I had been for them over the years.

            A while later, I had gotten some more sleep, but Clarke still hadn’t woken up. I was still scared, but when I saw the next person with blood on their face come in the drop ship, my heart sank.

            It was Bellamy. I slowly got up with Octavia’s help, and kneeled by his side. He was already coughing up blood. We each grabbed a hand, making sure he knew we were both there before we spoke.

            “Bell, hey, we’re here,” I told him weakly.

            He opened his eyes to see both me and Octavia looking down at him.

            “Aria, O,” he was out of breath. “I’m scared…” The fact that he said the same thing I had said to Octavia earlier was heartbreaking.

            Octavia looked at me, then back at Bellamy. “I won’t let anything happen to you, big brother. _We_ won’t let anything happen to you,” she told him. It was the same promise he had made to her when she was born, the same promise I had silently made to both of them. They were the only family I had, and we needed each other.

            “That’s what I said to you the day you were born,” Bellamy replied weakly. Octavia scoffed.

            “I know, you only told me like a thousand times.”

            “You’re looking better already,” Bellamy whispered, brushing my hair out of my face. I gave him a small smile and grabbed his hand.

            I was finally feeling better, it felt like the sickness was passing through my system. Miraculously, Octavia had never gotten it, so she ran around with John helping whoever they could while I rested to build up my strength. Clarke and Octavia came and left multiple times, but I didn’t leave Bellamy’s side the entire time.

 

 

_Six years earlier, 2143_

_“I wanna dance in the dark, and never stop_

_We gonna light up the night, like shooting stars_

_Whenever you hear the sound, don’t be alarmed_

_Ooh, ooh, ooh, dancing in the dark_

_Underdogs dance in the middle of the night_

_Out here with the stars like the creatures of the night_

_If you gonna dance, make sure you got the rhythm_

_Make sure that your heart beat, beats with the rhythm_

_I wanna dance, dance in the middle of the night_

_See the night’s skies in the mirror of your eyes”_

I laughed as I rounded the corner and saw kids from all over the Ark dancing and mingling, music drifting into the hallway.

            The music was loud, I could feel the bass all throughout my body. I looked behind me to see Bellamy standing there, reaching for me.

            He grinned and grabbed my hand. “Let’s go dance,” he said in my ear, leading me through the throng of teenagers until we found a good spot, and starting to dance.

            My hips were rocking to the beat, I was having the time of my life. I looked up at Bellamy, and I could tell that he was having fun too. I turned so that my back was facing him, and his hands automatically found their place on my hips.

            I knew dancing was not his favorite thing in the world, but he didn’t care as long as it was the two of us. He always tried to let loose around me, I thought as I spun back around, circling my arms around his neck.

            Now the song had changed, slower this time, and kids began to clear the floor for a rest.

            Bellamy didn’t budge, he took my left hand in his right, prepping me for the slower music. We had found some videos in the computers about dancing once, and it became one of our favorite things to do on a lazy afternoon.

            The waltz was his favorite, he wanted to take control of the pair of us, and I let him. Soon, we were spinning on the floor, perfectly in sync, not caring that all eyes were on us.

 

 

_Five years earlier, 2144_

I ran as fast as my legs would carry me until I found the corridor for the air lock.

            I rounded a corner, and saw my parents standing with Marcus Kane and Chancellor Jaha.

            “Aria, you shouldn’t be here,” Marcus said gently, trying to pull me back into the corridor.

            I looked past him, at my parents, and hissed, “I don’t care, you’re about to float my parents!” Marcus tensed as he stared down at me.

            I shoved past him and ran to my dad.

            Dad held on tight, then looked up at Marcus, one of his oldest friends. “Watch her for us, will you?”

            I could hear the pain in his voice, I didn’t want to let go. _This can’t be happening._

            I looked at Marcus, who just silently nodded.

            “Aria!” I turned to the sound of my name.

            It was Bellamy, wide eyed as he took in the scene in front of him. I should’ve known he’d come find me the second he heard the news.

            “Mr. Blake, you shouldn’t be here,” Jaha said calmly, and I watched sadly as guards stepped in front of Bellamy’s path.

            “I’m not going anywhere,” Bellamy said stubbornly, gesturing in my direction. “She needs me.” Jaha backed down, and the guards moved away from Bellamy.

            Once he was safely past the guards, I turned my attention to my mom, tears pooling in my eyes. She smiled sadly at me, and placed something in my hand, closing my fingers around it, and slowly pulled me into a big hug and kissed the top of my head.

            Guards were pulling me away from them, but I wrenched free of them to hug my parents one last time.

            Bellamy grabbed my hand and gently pulled me back, where I gripped his arm tightly as if I was about to be torn from him too. Dad looked Bellamy right in the eye.

            “Take care of each other, protect one another. Never lose sight of what is standing right next to you.” He spoke gently, nodding to us. Bellamy glanced back at me, then straightened and nodded back.

            I watched as they walked hand in hand into the airlock, and tears slid down my face as the doors closed between us. Jaha gave the silent signal, and a guard pushed the button. In less than a second, they were pulled into the dark recesses of space.

            Next thing I knew, I was on the ground, shaking and crying as Bellamy’s arms wrapped tightly around me, comforting me the only way he knew how.

            Marcus and Jaha had left after a few moments. I was still on the floor, wrapped protectively in Bellamy’s grasp. My hands clenched into his shirt, holding on for dear life, one of his hands cradling the back of my head with my face buried in his chest as he whispered gently in my ear, trying to soothe me.

            I remembered Mom had given me something. I shakily looked up at Bellamy, who watched as I slowly opened my hand to see a ring sitting in my palm. My mother’s wedding ring. The family heirloom; passed down from the first member of my family on the Ark, my great-grandmother.

            I wiped my tears away and examined it. It was beautiful, with diamonds and a twisted style to the band, and a heart just under the sides that you would miss if you didn’t look closely enough. I slipped it onto the ring finger of my right hand, and closed my eyes, resting my forehead on his shoulder before finally allowing Bellamy to help me to my feet. My legs refused to work, and he ended up carrying me back to my cabin, laying in bed with me as I cried myself to sleep.

           

 

 

_Present Day_

            I ran from one corner of the camp to the other as every shooter we had was poised at foxholes ready to shoot incoming grounders.

            Stopping in the dropship, I walked up to Raven. I checked her bandage as she shouted instructions to Clarke, attempting to set up the thrusters to the rocket as a backup plan. The grounders would be sending their scouts any minute, and tensions were high.

            Finn had run off to try and find Lincoln in his cave to get something that might help Raven’s injury, and Bellamy was in one of the foxholes trying to help keep an eye out for grounders, despite our lack of ammunition.

            As I was checking in on Raven, I heard everything through the radios as gunshots rang out. We locked eyes as I heard the frantic voices through the radio among the shots. Raven called for Jasper in the radio, because he could splice wires, and I was already walking out the door.

            “I’m of no use here, I have to go help,” I told Raven over my shoulder, then ran to Bellamy’s foxhole.

            “What’s going on?” I asked when I found him.

            “They’re trying to draw our fire, I’ve already got shooters out of ammunition,” Bellamy grunted in frustration.

            Before I could respond, I heard yelling from outside the foxhole, and I froze as I realized the grounders were finally attacking.

            “Bellamy, they’re coming! Fall back! To the dropship!” I yelled to everyone around me, and Bellamy and I ushered the others ahead of us.

            In a flurry of movement, grounders were all around us, and I grabbed a forgotten rifle, smacking one of them in the head as I scrambled after Bellamy.

            I saw Octavia impale a grounder that I now realized was on top of Bellamy, and she grinned to him as she tossed me the spare sword in her hand.

            “Admit it, you want one, too,” she said smugly.

            When he was back on his feet, Octavia yelled as an arrow pierced her thigh. I got distracted by noise behind me, and I turned just in time to block a sword coming at me, pushing off with all my strength and delivering the hardest strike I could manage. The figure collapsed, and I ran to Octavia.

            “What the hell is that?” Octavia asked as we heard more commotion from beyond our hiding place.

            “I don’t know, but they’re distracted, let’s move,” Bellamy said as he made a move to help Octavia up.

            “We’ll never make it, leave me, I’ll find another way,” Octavia grunted in pain.

            “We’re not going anywhere without you, O,” I said as I stood to get a better visual of the chaos.

            “Octavia,” I look in the opposite direction, toward the familiar voice, relaxing as I saw Lincoln.

            “Lincoln,” Octavia reached out to him from her place on the ground.

            I looked nervously to Bellamy, who was watching Lincoln closely before he asked, “You did this?”

            Lincoln nodded. “With Finn.” He looked over Octavia’s wound, looking pointedly at Bellamy first, then me, and lastly Octavia. “It’s deep, I can help you, but you have to come with me now,” he said quietly.

            After a moment of silence, I put a hand on Bellamy’s shoulder.

            “Go, let him help,” Bellamy whispered to her, and Octavia shook her head stubbornly.

            “No way, I have to see this through.”

            I kneeled down next to the two of them, grabbing Octavia’s hand. “O, you can’t walk,” I said sadly.

            “And…I can’t get you back to the dropship,” Bellamy told her as he shook his head.

            “They’re right, this fight is over for you,” Lincoln added gently.

            Bellamy grabbed Octavia’s other hand. “O.  O, listen to me. I told you my life ended the day you were born. The truth is,” He glanced to me with a crooked smile before turning back to his baby sister, “It didn’t start till then. Go with him, I need you to live.”

            “Don’t worry, O, we got this,” I told her gently, reaching over to hug her.

            “I love you, big brother,” Octavia said tearfully as she reached for a hug from Bellamy. When she pulled back, she looked from us back to Lincoln. “Aria, keep him out of trouble,” Octavia smiled to me, and I nodded.

            “May we meet again,” Bellamy and I whispered to her.

            “May we meet again,” Octavia replied as Lincoln picked her up.

            “Keep her safe,” Bellamy said, nodding to Lincoln, and we watched them leave for a second before turning and running back toward camp.

            We ran toward the sounds of reapers and grounders fighting, and I dodged everything I could before I turned to slash at someone coming on my left. We ducked into the secret entrance to the camp and emerged amidst the chaos of the delinquents fighting as hard as they could.

            In a split second, Bellamy was knocked down next to me, and I was fighting off another grounder. I saw Finn out of the corner of my eye, as he came to Bellamy’s aid while I found an opening to slash my sword through the grounder in front of me.

            I was out of breath, but continued fighting, almost stopping when I heard a familiar sound. I stabbed the figure closest to me, turning to see the door of the drop ship closing as my gut wrenched in near panic.

            In that instant, I was knocked to the ground, and when I opened my eyes despite the pounding in my head, I saw a grounder above me about to put his sword through my head. I rolled to the side just in time to see Bellamy knocking the grounder in the head with the butt of a rifle, but not before the grounder managed to get a good gash in my arm.

            “A, get out of here, they’re gonna blast off any minute,” he growled to me.

            I jumped to my feet, immediately fighting another grounder. “Not without you,” I grunted as I pushed off on my sword with all my weight.

            “Go, A! I’ll be right behind you!”

            He was right, we had to get out of here, and fast. Seeing an opening, I started running.

            I was running for only a few minutes when I heard the thrusters go off. I stopped in my tracks, dropping my sword and panting as I watched the forest light up in flames in front of me. Seeing no one around, I collapsed at the base of a tree, finally feeling the gnawing pain in my arm.

            I looked down, examining the gash, and ripped a piece of my shirt to hastily bandage it. My eyes were watering from the pain, but I knew I couldn’t stay here too long.

            I caught my breath, searching through the dark for any sign of Bellamy, or Finn, or any grounders. I slowly stood and started running once again, pushing away the bad feeling in the pit of my stomach with each footfall.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to reach out to me on tumblr :) @musicnote902


End file.
